Hi,
I was trying to recovery my HD using the recovery partition built into the drive at the factory. I thought I had selected the correct option to format the O/S C partition. I then realised that I was going to format the entire drive including the D partition where I had most of my stuff stored. When I realised I was formating the entire drive I switched off the machine, this was about one minute into the format.

" Pulling the mains when the PC was recovering the drive did the MBR file table in on your hard drive. Best bet is to slave the current hard drive so they can copy the info from your D partition, then let reformat/reinstall Windows."

I got myself a USB2.0 To IDE & SATA adapter cable and power supply to do this with.

I've been getting help from a tech at Protonic regards the problem.See below, bit long to wade through, sorry about that.
Please read through our correspondence below regarding our attemps to sort the problem out. I'm hoping someone on this forum can help us sort things out. My brother in law has a Win 7 install dvd I see him most days I'll borrow that to try the repair option on it.

Thanks,
Peter.

Question: I was using the recovery DVD iI pulled the plug I can recover the D drive where most of my stuff was kept. Protonic said I need to make the machines HD into a slave drive, copy the partition contents. Reinstall windows and import the D drive contents. Someone who knows about computers lent me a IDE USB connector in order to do all this. How to I find out how to connect up the HD in the machine and copy to an external HD.
I've replaced a HD in my Sony Vaio HD so I have a little bit of experience, I have a antistatic wrist strap..

" Hello Peter, and welcome to protonic.com!

Assuming the new HD is already mounted inside the system and Windows has been installed on to that new drive.

The old drive now needs to be connected to the IDE to USB cable. Some of these type of connections come with a second cable to go from the power port on the drive to the wall electrical outlet or surge protector.

Plug the USB cable into a USB port and wait for the system to "see" the new USB device. You should get a pop up asking what you want to do. Choose the option to view folders.

Now you can see all the files and folders on the OLD drive. Forget about the Windows folder on the OLD drive.

On the NEW drive, create a folder and call it something like OLD DRIVE DATA.

Now, all you have to do is copy and paste the data/folders you want from the OLD drive in to your NEW folder.

Any programs on the OLD drive will need to be installed on the NEW drive, so they are registered into the registry correctly. Just copying over the programs folder will not allow the programs to work.

Most of your data will probably be in the Documents and Settings folder on the OLD drive. Look for MY Documents. "

Hi Bob,
" Assuming the new HD is already mounted inside the system and Windows has been installed on to that new drive. " No this is not the case. Am I able to connect to Asus HD to the HD of another machine and copy the D partition contents onto it?
Cheers.

" Hello again Peter,

Ok, a bit confused...

3 of us have read through the closed question and this one and we all are confused.

Can you explain this better? "

"Hello again Peter,

Do you have a Windows 7 DVD to install with? "

Hi Bob,
I only have the ASUS DVD, which says on it, " Windows 7 recovery media for windows 7 products ",
goes on to say, "The software included on this recovery DVD was preinstalled on your hard disk drive at the factory and may only be used for the backup and recovery of your ASUs system.
Oh, I also have the 4 recovery DVDs that I made when prompted to do so, when I first used the machine.
Cheers.

" Hello again Peter,

OK, so what I am thinking here is you MAY be able to do a REPAIR of Windows with these disks.

Doing a REPAIR of Windows will fix the Master Boot Record, and replace all the Windows system files, but will NOT harm any user files. It works like a charm.

This way, you won't have to do any data transfers or anything, just a repair of Windows.

HAve a look here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/68 ... epair.html

This is for a Startup repair, which MAY work, too. If not, the option under Startup Repair is a System Restore, which can go back in time to a day when all was working correctly.

Try these options with your disks first."

Hi,
No joy, can't acess the recovery DVD or the other DVDS. Getting same messages as before.

" Hello again Peter,

So what I'd do now is have your PC friend show you how to hook up the cable he gave you to your bad HD, after it's removed from your laptop.

There are so many different cable set ups out there, I have no idea which one you have. Most will have a data cable and a power cable, as the drive will need power to work since it is outside of the system.

It will simply hook up to a USB port on whatever system you are going to attach it to.

On that working system, create a folder on the C drive called "Peter's Backup".

Plug the drive in and wait for the USB prompt, then go to that drive in My Computer and copy all you want to save to your folder you created.

Now that all your info is saved to a different drive, you can format that drive from your laptop with a right-click/Format.

When finished, you can plug the drive back into your laptop and reinstall Windows.

When you have finished that, unplug the drive and plug it back into the other system and get your info back onto the drive.

You can try copying the whole drive, reformatting, and copy it back, but I doubt that will make your laptop boot. It might, but rule of thumb is that Windows needs to be reinstalled to fix the Master Boot Tables in order to get the drive to work in your laptop. "

" Hello Peter, and welcome to protonic.com!

Once the drive is connected and you have moved all the data you wanted to save, go to My Computer. The USB drive should now be showing there. Right-click it and choose FORMAT.

Once that has completed, pop the newly formatted drive into you ASUS and reboot the system with the Windows disk in the CD/DVD-ROM drive.

Windows should install normally now."

Yes I got the adapter connected up OK. See the drive screen shots. I can open the recovery partition on the ASUS HD but the H drive I can't, see the screen shot. Any ideas?
Cheers.
Peter.

" Hello again Peter,

OK, I am a bit confused here.

Drive G: is a Factory Recovery drive which is a partition of the main C: drive. Is this on someone elses PC?

The H; drive is the drive from the laptop that had issues and is now hooked up USB? "

Hi Bob,
The Recovery drive G and local H drive only appear in the Dells my computer info, when switch on the USB adapter cable. The G recovery partition is factory installed by ASUS onto their HDs. The H drive must be the rest of the ASUS HD that I don't seem able to access. The G and H drive are on the ASUS HD that I'm having trouble with.
Cheers.

" Hello again Peter,

Are you sure the Recovery drive isn't part of the laptop that works?

I have never ever seen a drive show up as such when connected via USB. They all show up like the H drive.

What is the GoFlex drive that shows there? "

Hi,
" Are you sure the Recovery drive isn't part of the laptop that works? "
The Recovery G drive is part of the ASUS drive I'm having problems with. The top folder in it is titled, ASUS log.

The Recovery G drive only shows up when the ASUS HD is connected to my working laptop via the USB Ide, Sata adapter cable. The GoFlex is an external HD I connected to copy folders from the ASUS HD.

The ASUS drive was partitioned into a C and a D partition. The MBR file that got messed up when I pulled the mains plug, ( I did this I realised I was formatting the whole HD )I assume was located in the Windows O/S folders on the C drive. I stored all my stuff on the D drive, in case I needed to reinstall O/S on the C drive. Could select the option to just reinstall O/S on the C drive and leave the contents of the D drive alone.
In the ASUS user manual it says the Recovery partition is created at the factory and cannot be restored if deleted.
Peter.

" Hello again Peter,

Still confused here...

So, you have a working laptop and a drive from a different laptop that is NOT working.

You have removed the drive that has issues and plugged it into the working laptop, which shows as drive H using the new USB connector you purchased.

Is this old drive plugged in while the laptop is running, and you get a pop-up saying USB device recognized?

If you shut the laptop off with this drive connected via USB, will the laptop boot to it when you reboot the laptop? "

" So, you have a working laptop and a drive from a different laptop that is NOT working. "
Yes Bob that's correct.
" You have removed the drive that has issues and plugged it into the working laptop, which shows as drive H using the new USB connector you purchased."
Yes, that's right.
" Is this old drive plugged in while the laptop is running, and you get a pop-up saying USB device recognized? "
I assume you mean, while the laptop is actually running? Connect up the cable and at the same time power up the HD I'm having problems with?
Or did you mean connect up the cable power up HD then switch on the laptop?
Right now, the laptop is on, connected the USB cable first, got no pop-up saying USB device recognised. Then powered up the HD, no USB pop up. When powered up the HD the recovery G drive contents appeared on screen. The H drive and recovery G drive show up in, my computer.
" If you shut the laptop off with this drive connected via USB, will the laptop boot to it when you reboot the laptop? " I'll try it and get back to you in a few minutes.
Thanks.

" If you shut the laptop off with this drive connected via USB, will the laptop boot to it when you reboot the laptop? "
Yes, see attached photos.

"Hello again Peter,

OK, it's starting to make SOME sense.

This is a bear when I cannot hear/see what is going on.

So, when you boot and you get the screens that you just uploaded to show me, do you let the checkdisk run to look for the errors on H:?

If not, go ahead and let it. "

" " So, when you boot and you get the screens that you just uploaded to show me, do you let the checkdisk run to look for the errors on H:? "
The checkdisk doesn't run, I think it says something about the MBR and check disk being cancelled then the laptop boots up as normal. Will look again, perhaps later this evening, to verify what I just said, am in middle of stuff right now. If not this evening then Wednesday morning UK time.
Cheers.

" Hello again Peter,

That's fine.

So, if you do have a Win7 DVD to install/repair with, boot the laptop with the H drive, then follow the directions here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/32523/ho ... ot-loade...

I am not sure how to do this, as I have not done this with an extra drive, but the intention is to run a fixboot command to drive H: "

Hi,
I checked the screen at boot up, said something like, " corrupt master file table, windows will not attempt to recover, disk checking stopped.

I only have the ASUS Win 7 64 bit recovery DVD and the DVDS I made when I was prompted to do when I first ran the machine.
Thank you.

" Hello again Peter,

Did you make one of these DVDs?:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... epair-disc

If yes, you can attempt to use that. "

I put the ASUS recovery dvd into the working laptop, connected the ASUS HD vis the cable and rebooted the laptop.
Result, Windows is loading files, then recovery box saying, the current system was not an ASUS model, press OK to reboot.
Then tried the same procedure with the recovery dvds I made when I first run the ASUS machine.
Result, starting Windows, then dialog box titled, A1 restore : recovery HD exe - application error.
The instruction at 0X001b1db6 referenced memory at 0x00000000 could not be read, click on OK to terminate program.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... epair-disc
Will do this now get back to you later this evening, if not tonight, then it will be Friday.
Thanks again,
Peter.

" Hello again Peter,

OK. It's starting to look like this isn't going to work. In the end, you're PROBABLY going to have to get a real Windows disk.

But give it a try. It might just work. "

To create a system repair disc

1 Open Backup and Restore by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Backup and Restore.

2 In the left pane, click Create a system repair disc, and then follow the steps. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
" In the left pane, click Create a system repair disc. " Can't see that.
See upload.

" Hello again Peter,

Try this:

Click Start, All Programs, Maintenance, Create a Recovery Disc. Then just follow the instructions.

To respond to me, please do NOT click "reply" in your email program or webmail interface as doing so will result in the loss of your response. Instead, please click on one of the "To Reply" links which I have included at the top and bottom of this email. This will ensure that your reply reaches me. "

I have the original Windows Vista Install dvd for the working laptop.

" Hello again Peter,

Make a Repair Disk with the working laptop Vista and use that on the bad drive. Don't use the ASUS part, just the Windows Vista Repair. "

" Hello again Peter,

Try this:

Click Start, All Programs, Maintenance, Create a Recovery Disc. Then just follow the instructions. "

Can't see the option, create recovery disc, see picture upload.
Will connect the ASUS HD up via cable to working laptop, boot the laptop with the install disc in and try the recovery options that way. Hope to get back to you later this evening to let you know how I got on.
Thanks.


Hi,
Got Win Vista install screen, clicked next, then selected repair your computer, then get system recovery options, select an operating system to repair and click next, get only Windows Vista O/S are listed and can be repaired. Goes on saying, if you do not see your operating system listed click load drivers for your hard drive, tried that leads nowhere, lists recovery partition G, boot X, couldn't get anywhere. I might be able to borrow a Win 7 install DVD tio run the repair option from. What do you think?
Cheers.

" Hello again Peter,
By all means, give that a try, but I think that old drive's file systems is munged bad enough that the only option is going to be to reformat it and reinstall Windows.

All other attempts has failed."

I've actually used IRecover it found a lot of stuff on the drive I couldn't access. That said, out of 241046 files it found 31477 were damaged. I've only looked quickly so far, but I think almost all the stuff I wanted has gone. So i think I'll have to start over and wipe the drive.
So no need to think of solutions to my problem, as is now sorted.
Cheers.

Still could be recoverable, but it will need a pro.

_________________
www.datarecoveryne.com

Can't afford it.
Thanks anyway.

@pollys13:

Unfortunately it's very difficult IMHO to get a good understanding of everything from your first posting, for several reasons. However, based on my interpretation of what you wrote, I have 4 comments. Note: As always, attempting any DIY data recovery has risks, but since you've said you can't afford to use a DR company, it's your choice whether to take those risks:

a) Some of what you were told by Protronic was wrong, assuming that (as seems likely) the MBR was erased. After that, you were never going to be able to put that partly-erased drive into a USB enclosure and immediately see the original drives C & D (although with different drive letters), when that USB enclosure was attached to another system. More work would always be needed.

b) Depending on how much of the drive, the Windows 7 format had wiped (which could be found using a hex editor), then your original drive D might be untouched. Using a utility like Partition Find & Mount, installed on a different PC, may then allow you to find the original drive D untouched on your previous drive.

c) Just because iRecover didn't find what you wanted, does not mean that other recovery software would also be unsuccessful. Obviously it's your decision when to give up, but there are many other approaches & software which could be tried - although I can't judge whether your experience is sufficient for you to be successful on your own.

d) At this stage, if you haven't already erased your original disk, one plan would be to get 2 USB drives of the same total capacity as your original drive. Clone the whole of the original drive onto the 1st of those drives (that becomes your temporary backup, in case anything happens to the original drive). Then try different recovery software (starting with Partition Find & Mount) reading that temporary backup drive, to recover your files onto the 2nd new drive. Other approaches are also possible, but that is one you could consider.

Good luck with whatever you decide

Hi,
Thanks for your help on this, very much appreciated. I also tried Disk Doctors Windows Data Recovery demo. I started it at 07:49 this morning it finished at 17:32 as it took a great deal more time to run than DIY Data Recovery. I went back to DIY Recovery, I said I thought I had lost the stuff I wanted. They replied,

" Those files, if recoverable, may be in directory branches with generic names. So I don't know how you 'quick looked' for those file. I clicked on the folders that the software I couldn't recognise the contents. However I will try as you suggest, " but I recommend you look again and use the filter/search function before giving up. " Thanks for that.

I found Freeware Hex Editor XVI32 Version 2.53
If is not to complicated to understand how to run the editor to determine the extent of damage if any to drive D if it still exists. Could you direct me to some guidelines on how to run the editor please?

" Depending on how much of the drive, the Windows 7 format had wiped " As I say, it ran for about a minute when I realised my mistake, I then pulled the mains plug. I do have quite a lot of the D drive backed up but only up to about June last year, I store a lot of stuff that is of interest, so there is a lot of information on the original D drive. In future I will back the drive up at the end of each day.

" At this stage, if you haven't already erased your original disk, one plan would be to get 2 USB drives of the same total capacity as your original drive. " Money again, the problem HD was in total, I think 235GB
I have an external 1TB drive, I assume I could use this?
I did try the Ubantu Recue Remix Disk and Adriane Knoppix V.6 no joy.

I see EaseUS Disk Copy is a freeware cloning program, would this be OK or would you suggest something else? I've found the Partition Find & Mount site.
Thank you for your help on this:)
Regards,
Vegan XxX

I can see you're trying to explain things, but like with your first comments, there are several places where I can't understand what you're saying, due to the vague terminology being used. I also don't have the time to try to clarify each unclear point. So here are some brief replies in the hope that they help, but please don't expect that I'll hand-hold through the whole process, as I'm just too busy for that. You may have to wait for help from other members, or ask for help from a DR company (for drives like yours which don't have physical problems, costs are much less than some people think). As I said before, there are risks with any DIY recovery attempt. You have to decide if you're willing to take those risks.


I don't understand that next set of comments, nor does it make any difference IMHO. They don't know what other recovery software, or other recovery approaches, could achieve.


In short: Doing reads only (no writes of any kind!), start at the beginning of the "problem" drive (sector 0) - that sector may have a new (empty) MBR or, more likely, will be full of hex 00 bytes from the Win7 format. Then look through the disk from the start towards the end, looking for where the sectors change from being full of hex 00 bytes, to something else. That is likely to be the point where the Win7 format reached, before you pulled the plug. (There could be a complication here, as you might have one unreadable sector, caused when the power was cut.)

If you knew (or guess) the layout of the original partitions before you started the format, and the approximate size of each one, then knowing the sector number that the format process reached would allow you to see whether the format only affected your drive C, or reached your drive D also. I'm making the assumption that your recovery partition was even later on that disk (i.e. higher sector numbers that drive D).


Yes - there is no getting away from the fact that increasing the chances of success, and reducing the risks, of DIY recovery needs extra hardware & software, some of which costs money.


That probably means it is what the industry call a 250GB drive. If you look on the web for the full part number shown on the label of your disk drive, you'll be able to confirm or correct this guess.


In theory, yes (assuming it is empty, and available for you to wipe - is it?), but in practice using just one drive makes things more complicated for you. As a minimum you need to partition it to hold those two different sets of data I described before. That forces you to use image files, and not raw images, adding to the limitations you need to deal with.


"no joy" doesn't say what you were trying to do, nor what result you got, so I can't comment


I've never tried it, and a quick look at their web page doesn't make it totally clear what options it has for creating image files as you would need to do, if you are restricting yourself to having just one drive hold both the clone & any recovered files. The free software I use would definitely be too complicated (and risky) for you. FYI, I believe that the trial version of R-Studio allows you to make image files, even before paying for it.

Based on your questions, I fear that you may need more help than I have the time to give but I hope the above gives you some ideas.

OK thank you very much.

P.S. I was rushing when writing my last reply and I was wrong in saying that you would need to wipe the 1TB drive & repartition it (I was mixing the requirements of cloning to a raw partition and cloning to a file). The answer to your question of can you use that drive is: Perhaps, depending on other things, including (but not limited to), the amount of free space on that drive. This is the sort of complication you get into when re-using drives, instead of knowing that you have empty drives, as I had originally mentioned. Sorry for my earlier misinformation on this point.

Anyway, good luck

OK, thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction.
Cheers